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THE NEW YORKER, APRIL 22, 2013
a series of alarm bells that sound throughout the
museum whenever a visitor presses a button. But
Gutai, which translates, loosely, as "embodiment,"
is hardly kid stuff---it was a radical call by artists,
led by Yoshihara Jiro, to break down the barriers
between art and life. It was founded in 1955---the
year that Murakami Saburo burst through twenty-
one paper screens and left the shredded remains
as a trace of his action and that Shiraga Kazuo
writhed in mud to create a painting; both works
are in evidence here. Through May 8. "No Coun-
try: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast
Asia." Through May 22. "The Hugo Boss Prize:
DanhVo,IMUUR2."ThroughMay27.(Open
Fridays through Wednesdays, 10 to 5:45, and Sat-
urday evenings until 7:45.)
WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
Madison Ave. at 75th St. (212-570-3600)---"Jay
DeFeo: A Retrospective." Through June 2.
"Blues for Smoke." Through April 28. (Open
Wednesdays, Thursdays, and weekends, 11 to 6,
and Fridays, 1 to 9.)
BROOKLYN MUSEUM
200 Eastern Parkway (718-638-5000)--- "Gravity
and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui."
Through Aug. 4. "Raw/Cooked: Marela Za-
carias." Through April 28. " 'Workt by Hand':
Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts." Through Sept.
15. "LaToya Ruby Frazier: A Haunted Capital."
Adapting the anecdotal format of a magazine photo-
essay, Frazier documents life in Braddock, Pennsyl-
vania, the all but abandoned former steel town near
Pittsburgh where she grew up. Her balance of the
personal and the political is just right, always skew-
ing toward the former to focus on her grandmother,
mother, and herself. At once despairing and pitiless,
Frazier's portraits and self-portraits are the heart
of the exhibition, supported by landscapes (several
of the demolition of the last local hospital) and
still-lifes (her grandmother's recliner, stove top, and
carpet debris are especially revealing). Just thirty-
one, the photographer looks a decade younger, even
after suffering an attack of lupus, but her work is
fully mature---thoughtful, grounded, angry, and
right on target. Through Aug. 11. "John Singer
Sargent Watercolors." Through July 28. (Open
Wednesdays through Sundays, 11 to 6, and Thurs-
day evenings until 10.)
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Central Park W. at 79th St. (212-769-5100)---
"Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture."
Through Aug. 11. "Whales: Giants of the Deep."
Through Jan. 5. (Open daily, 10 to 5:45.)
CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY
15 W. 16th St. (212-294-8301)---"Passages Through
the Fire: Jews and the Civil War." Through Aug.
11. (Mondays, 5 to 8, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and
Sundays, 11 to 5, Wednesdays, 11 to 8, and Fri-
days, 11 to 2:30.)
FRICK COLLECTION
1 E. 70th St. (212-288-0700)---"Piero della Fran-
cesca in America." Through May 19. "The Im-
pressionist Line from Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec:
Drawings and Prints from the Clark." Through
June 16. (Open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10
to 6, and Sundays, 11 to 5.)
JEWISH MUSEUM
Fifth Ave. at 92nd St. (212-423-3200)---"As It Were
. . . So to Speak: A Museum Collection in Dia-
logue with Barbara Bloom." Through Aug. 4.
"Six Things: Sagmeister & Walsh." Through Aug.
4. (Open Saturdays through Tuesdays, 11 to 5:45,
Thursdays, 11 to 8, and Fridays, 11 to 4.)
NEW MUSEUM
235 Bowery, at Prince St. (212-219-1222)---"NYC
1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star."
Through May 26. (Open Wednesdays through Sun-
days, 11 to 6, and Thursday evenings until 9.)
SCULPTURECENTER
44-19 Purves St., Queens (718-361-1750)---"Bet-
ter Homes." Opens April 22. (Open Thursdays
through Mondays, 11 to 6.)
STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM
144 W. 125th St. (212-864-4500)---"Fred Wil-
son: Local Color." Through June 30. "David
Hartt." Through June 30. "Mendi and Keith
Obadike: American Cypher." Through June 30.
"Ayé A. Aton: Space-Time Continuum." Through
nothing was more or less important," Eggleston
said. That quote is printed on the wall of this
(mostly) greatest-hits exhibition: thirty-six superb
dye-transfer prints, including such iconic images
as the tricycle, the bare light bulb on a blood-red
ceiling, the empty stove, the Halloween trick-or-
treaters. Think of the show as a master class in
the art of the everyday. Through July 28. "Cam-
bodian Rattan: The Sculptures of Sopheap Pich."
Through July 7. (Open Tuesdays through Sun-
days, 9:30 to 5:30, and Friday and Saturday eve-
nings until 9.)
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
11 W. 53rd St. (212-708-9400)---"Claes Olden-
burg: The Street and the Store." Through Aug.
5. "Claes Oldenburg: Mouse Museum/Ray Gun
Wing." Through Aug. 5. "Bill Brandt: Shadows
and Light." Through Aug. 12. "Henri Labrouste:
Structure Brought to Light." Through Aug. 12.
"Projects 99: Meiro Koizumi." Through May 6.
(Open Wednesdays through Mondays, 10:30 to
5:30, and Friday evenings until 8.)
MOMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave., Queens (718-784-2084)---
"Metahaven: Islands in the Cloud." Through April
21. "Michelangelo Frammartino: Alberi." Opens
April 18. (Open Thursdays through Mondays,
noon to 6.)
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM
Fifth Ave. at 89th St. (212-423-3500)---"Zarina:
Paper Like Skin." Through April 21. "Gutai:
Splendid Playground." "Make good mischief!" de-
clared the founders of the postwar Japanese art
movement, in an issue of their children's magazine,
Kirin (the Japanese word for "giraffe"). On one
recent visit to this exuberant survey, a group of
kindergartners could be seen doing just that under
a bright-red cube originally conceived by Tsuruko
Yamazaki for an outdoor festival in 1956, and re-
constructed here. As you enter the museum, the
rst thing you see is a network of plastic tubes
lled with colored liquid, swooping across the mu-
seum's atrium. The show is vibrant. Also noisy,
thanks to Atsuko Tanaka's "acoustic composition,"
Preview: April 25 & 26, 10-6; April 27, 12-5; April 29 & 30, 10-6
104 East 25th St, New York, NY 10010 • tel 212 254 4710
SWANNGALLERIES.COM
George Bellows, A Stag at Sharkey's (detail), lithograph, 1917. Estimate $80,000 to $120,000.
Old Master Through Modern Prints
MAY 1
Specialist: Todd Weyman • tweyman@swanngalleries.com